Our first reading comes from the section of the Acts of the Apostles that seems to fulfill the prophecy of Gamaliel. The renowned teacher of the Law had advised the elders in Jerusalem to leave the Apostles alone. If theirs was a human endeavor it would dissipate quickly. If it was of Divine origin it would inevitably spread and prosper, and in that case, it would be futile to work against God.
When all the disciples, other than the Apostles, are scattered from Jerusalem after Stephen’s martyrdom, we’re meant to see in the success of Philip’s ministry the proof that the Church and its evangelical mission are indeed the work of God.
So this section of readings from the Acts of the Apostles, from which today’s reading comes, has many valuable things to say to us about the evangelical mission of the Church even to this very day. Just three quick points to consider:
Philip and the Call to Mission:
After having been so successful in his preaching in Samaria, that an entire town came to be Baptized, Philip could be excused for imagining that his next mission might be in Athens or Rome – some great step up on the ‘corporate ladder’. But the Spirit tells him: “Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route.” Not to some important town or city, not where many potential disciples could be found – but into the desert, where no one lived and where people moved as quickly as possible from one place to the next.
And yet Philip goes, following the Spirit’s prompting. We are supposed to be similarly open to the promptings of the Spirit, and disposed to go where we are asked to go and do what we are told to do to proclaim the kingdom. But sometimes, we are more prideful about our own plans and aspirations and less open to go out of our way. All of us are being called to an evangelizing mission – we have to discern that call well, and answer faithfully.
The Eunuch and the Role of Scripture in the Worshipping Community:
The Ethiopian eunuch “had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home.” We can imagine that he might have been unwelcome in the Temple precincts – he was very much an outsider, a foreigner, and as a eunuch, was considered ritually impure. “He was reading the Scripture passage which said: . . . ‘In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity?’” Might the eunuch have come to see in this passage about Jesus an echo of His own life – unwelcome in the Temple and denied a posterity?
We’re all meant to see in the life of Christ and in the Scriptures as a whole, our own story. And we’re to find the true meaning of the Scriptures not on our own, but as the Eunuch understands, within the community of believers – through guides and mentors, and through the apostolic tradition.
We Here Today and the Universal Invitation of Our Evangelical Mission:
The entirety of the Apostles’ preaching in the earliest days of the Church can be summed up in Peter’s oft repeated invitation: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ that your sins may be forgiven and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
So, when the Ethiopian eunuch asks, “Look, there is water. What is to prevent me from being baptized?” The answer is, of course, nothing. No issue of gender, or ethnicity, or race, or language, or even past sin, nothing keeps a person from being invited to “repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.”
We’re called, as an apostolic community, to be that radically open to evangelizing all people, everywhere, in any and all situations – and we’re called to witness faithfully to the central invitation of evangelization: repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.
In the Easter mysteries we now celebrate in this Eucharist we are nourished and strengthened with the bread come down from heaven – the very flesh of Jesus Christ. May this Eucharist assist us in our evangelical mission to help draw all people to new life in Christ.
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